


Count On Me (Like One Two Three)

by tmrs



Series: GeneratioNext [4]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: Bullying, Original Child Characters, Other, school pranks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-06 08:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8743498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmrs/pseuds/tmrs
Summary: The boy sitting across the other three on the outside area where the last class of the day was happening holds in the urge to snort. He's no pussy, but he's not dumb either. There's no reason to mess with that little girl wearing a beanie with fox ears except for the fact she hadn't accepted Arne's homemade gingerbread heart last weekend and if he’s being honest, he couldn't blame her for that. For what he heard from Otto, Arne ended up writing "Du sind meine Prenssezin" instead of "Du bist mein Prinzessin", which would scare him off too. No gingerbread is worth such bad grammar.
 In which Mario and Marco eldest son has to prove himself for The Cool Squad - or maybe not.A story about fitting in during the first year of high school.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Khalehla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khalehla/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Life in Colour](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8137273) by [Khalehla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khalehla/pseuds/Khalehla). 



> The following story is a part of Khalehla's amazing serie [ Life in Colour ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8137273/chapters/18651982) \- a collection of after-retirement domestic scenes around some of our favorites players, their families and [the next generation](http://archiveofourown.org/series/559894). If you haven't checked before I highly recomend and I'm sure you won't regret.
> 
> Original characters:  
> Joachim/Jogi is the eldest child of Marco and Mario.  
> Lennart/Lenny is the youngest child of Fabian Götze.  
> Both of them are 12 on this story.

"Alright, what about this …?" The one named Arne smiles with mischief after exchanging a look with the other two. "You pull that stupid beanie out of her head and we give you 20€."

 

"But _why_?"

 

"Because I want you to! And if you want to be our friend, then you can't be a pussy."

 

The boy sitting across the other three on the outside area where the last class of the day was happening holds in the urge to snort. He's no pussy, but he's not dumb either. There's no reason to mess with that little girl wearing a beanie with fox ears except for the fact she hadn't accepted Arne's homemade gingerbread heart last weekend and if he’s being honest, he couldn't blame her for that. For what he heard from Otto, Arne ended up writing "Du sind meine Prenssezin" instead of "Du bist mein Prinzessin", which would scare him off too. No gingerbread is worth such bad grammar.

 

Arne and his friends didn’t need more than a couple of weeks to start being called _The Cool Squad_ of all the new classes in the first year of the gymnasium, which is a bit impressive yeah and has it's value, but again, if he’s being honest, that initiation is ridiculous and unnecessary. It's pretty clear that Jogi himself is _The Coolest Boy_ around so it would be only fair to become a member of _The Cool Squad_ automatically, no tests needed. The twelve year old boy staring at him doesn’t seem to have received the memo though. What an idiot. Jogi feelsthat  he will need to teach him a thing or two - German included.

 

“What? Are you scared or something?” Otto fails to pretend he wasn’t picking his nose ten seconds ago. “It’s just a girl!”

 

 _Fine_ , Jogi thinks. Trying to come up with a plan, the boy turns his eyes back to the girl, watching as she searches for something on her pencil case, completely focused on doing her worksheet a few meters away. He thinks about his cousin Patrice who's eight now and wonders if the boys on her grundschule also make bets about pulling her blonde pigtails; he can paint the perfect picture of her frown, baby blue eyes squinting with anger from being told not to retaliate so many times. He thinks about his sister Astrid. Her four year old hands grabbing colored chalk to paint outside the lines of something she drew, just like that girl with fox ears beanie is doing right now, as unaware as someone can be. Girls. _Just girls_.

 

A crooked grin that looks a lot like his dad’s ones, spreads on Jogi's face.

 

"20€ you say?" Jogi asks. Finn nods making the raven hair fall over his forehead. "Each?"

 

"Of course not! And stop wasting time, Herr Flaake is going to come back soon"

 

Feeling extra confident, the boy makes his way through a few groups of other kids who are exchanging notes, copying each other's chemistry homework and chatting until he reached her. She was now working on a scrapbook, pinning some dry leaves on a page with colored borders that Jogi would have stopped to admire if he wasn't on an urgent mission in that moment. He gave a look over his shoulder to see Arne nodding. He smiles back.

 

Crouching in front of the girl, he catches her attention.

 

“What?” she asks, using a hand to try shielding the eyes from the sun.

 

"Those guys over there offered me 20€ to pull your beanie, but I think we can do better and I'm open to negotiation; what do you say?" he says in one breath to gain time.

 

"Uhm, I... I have ice cream vouchers to Kuhbar?"

 

"Deal! Can you fake cry?"

 

She nods, and he grabs her beanie.

 

Before turning left to hide behind the building with one of the fox’s ears at hand, Jogi could hear a girl's voice breaking up in sobs that sound so realistic that it makes him check to make sure he hadn’t pulled her hair together with it. He’s relieved to find he didn’t..

 

Minutes later when the class is dismissed for the day Arne, shows up with the other two.

 

"That was awesome!" Otto hands him his backpack. "She fell for it like a dummy."

 

“Did you see how she cried??” Finn elbows the taller one in the hips as they laugh. "We’re off to blow some zombies’ head on VR, see you guys next week."

 

They're gone and Arne stretches the open hand towards Jogi, palm pointing upwards.

 

"Give it to me."

 

"No."

 

"Excuse me?"

 

He squint the eyes, slightly tilting the head to look for something suspicious on Jogi's eyes but the boy doesn't crack under the pressure, holding the stare without a trace of fear or hesitation.

 

"I deserve a trophy, right?"

 

Arne ponders this and ends up shrugging. "Fair enough"

 

This time Jogi is the one showing him the palm of his hand so the boy could put the money there before Arne could start walking away towards a blue car that had just parked near the entry gates.  

 

"So I'm in?"

 

The only answer he gets is a vague wave before the car leaves, soon disappearing from view.

 

"Bastard."

 

Jogi puts the beanie inside his backpack and fixes the straps over his shoulders as he heads towards the recreation area, sending a message to his Papa to say he's going to stay at the library studying for a while. It’s a lie, but in his mind, that little lie was way better than not saying anything and causing another awful day - like the one where after arguing with Julian, he went out to walk around the neighbourhood Small Garden Club without a warning and got home hours later to find his Papa sobbing at the couch, Dad shaking on the phone, fear overwhelming both for reasons he couldn’t understand.

 

After tucking the cellphone back on the jeans he spots the girl seated at one of the patio tables.

 

"Hey you."

 

She jumps down fixing her bangs. "I thought you tricked me."

 

"I would never do that." The boy waits for her to reach him before start walking again, this time with her by his side. "I had a suspicion Arne was an idiot, but today I just got the confirmation."

 

"He pretty much signed his stupidity certification last weekend to me..."

 

Arriving at the bicycle parking sharing a laugh, Jogi passes her half of the money he got from Arne. "Here is your part."

 

"Really?”

 

“Your crying was really convincing.”

 

“Thanks! I always knew my gekkering sounds imitation would be useful for something one day,” she laughs while getting on her bicycle and waiting for him to do the same a few steps away. "By the way, I'm Maj."

 

"Nice to meet you Maj," the boy nods and smiles. “I’m Jogi.”

 

The sight of colourful letters and flowers on the window from the ice cream shop entrance as soon they turn left is enough to lift the kids’ mood and make their mouths water. The distance on those last couple of meters vanish in no time and once inside, neither would be sure if the bicycle was properly parked or not if asked. They exchange an excited look before hurrying to the ice cream display with the biggest bowls they could find at hand.    

 

“So… What was today about anyway?" the girl asks, adding one raspberry scoop of the ice cream on top of the yogurt one before offering it to him. He waves it off, reaching out to the chocolate chip.

 

"He wanted me to go through a test to see if I'm good enough for his squad… Are you really going to eat this green one?"

 

“It’s pistachio, I like it…” she slaps his head slightly making him groan. “Don’t call me a weirdo!”

 

“I didn’t say anything!”

 

“But I know you thought.”

 

Jogi bites his lip to hide a smile, following her to one of the tables, licking the chocolate syrup off his hand. The girl drops her body into one of the cow-print chairs. “Anyway… I guess you passed the test, huh?"

 

She sounds annoyed, so he takes the eyes out of the full bowl in front of him to see her stabbing her big green globe of whatever pistachio was on it’s real form with the scoop. Pulling the backpack onto his lap, the boy catches her attention, opening the zipper of it.

 

"Yeah, I kinda did I guess." Jogi pulls the beanie out of it and holds out for her to pick back. "Thing is, I don't want to be part of a bully squad and well, I can make my own."

 

The girl stares at him for a while before smiling and picking up the beanie and then a bit more as he holds his hand in a fist for her to bump hers against, chewing some chocolate chips loudly, eyebrows slightly raised on a silent invitation. She accepts.

 

“We need a cooler handshake if we’re going to do this.”

 

“Alright.”

 

The kids exchange some personal information and complain about classes until the talk moves to more interesting subjects like their favorites hobbies. The mention of it makes Maj hum like she had just remembered something. Picking up the school bag from the floor, she takes the scrapbook out of it with the small pencil case to spread above the table. Jogi leans closer to examine it properly, finding it full of notes, song lyrics and foreign words. Some pages had Polaroid pictures stuck to it and some had movie tickets. Maj picks up a clean napkin and glue to attach on a clean page, and after adding the date at the corner left, she starts doodling and scribbling.

 

“Do you want to help to fill the page?”

 

Jogi pulls the chair closer to hers, accepting the invitation in a second, and many minutes later he’s proud of how it looks. To finish the blank border, he picks up the black pen to write his name a couple of times under a little text.

 

“We have to go, so much homework I swear… What are you doing?” Maj says.

 

“Practicing my signature,” he holds the book up for her to see it. “I also wrote a brief note about today so when I become a famous footballer in a year you can tell all your cute friends you had ice cream with me.”

 

“Charming.” Maj slowly pulls it out of his hands to put it back in the bag, already making her way to the cashier and he follows. “Be a good friend and make it sooner so I can sell it online and pay someone to do my homework until gymnasium is over, ok?”

 

The lack of doubt on her voice makes his smile grow twice as big. “I’ll try my best”

 

Maj gives the woman behind the counter her voucher but Jogi seems distracted with a small box in front of him, squeezing her eyes, she can see it’s a donation box for a charity that helps kids. Hitting his arm with her shoulder breaks the spell; he apologizes while giving away his voucher and fishes something on his pocket to slide into the box. Maj frown melts away when she understands he had just given his share of Arne’s money, and it makes her chuckle. Her 10€ goes inside the box as well.

 

Their houses are in opposite directions so it’s time to say goodbye, but they exchange phone numbers already outside, near the tree where the bicycles are parked. Maj touches Jogi’s elbow to catch his attention from the mobile screen and tiptoes slightly to put the beanie on his head.

 

“Fits you,” she shrugs, turning around to get on her bicycle she snaps her tongue. “You know, my mom has some one those hair extensions… How much do you think Arne would pay you to pluck a tuft of my hair out of my scalp? I know how to make fake blood…”

 

“Alright,” his eyes widen. “You _really are_ a weirdo you know that, right?”

 

Maj just laughs before taking off, leaving Jogi feeling sure he had found a new best friend.

 

Jogi’s cousin Lennart is the one that convinces the two that plucking a chunk of hair out of the other’s head would never be a good idea whether it was fake or not - especially involving the amount of blood the girl says she was planning to use. Lennart joins them at one of their regular Friday meetups at Kuhbar when Jogi didn’t have training and Maj stares at the brown haired boy with something that Jogi thinks is the what people mean when they say “bitch face”; she doesn’t stop until they move to choose the ice creams and Lennart offers her the pistachio scoop making Maj crack a smile. That day when they’re about to leave Jogi spots some guys with cameras and holds the other two by their backpacks.

 

“Damn Lennart! Not again!” Jogi says

 

“Don’t give me this tone, it’s _you_ they’re after!” Lennart counters.

 

“Your constant fear attracts unluck...”

 

“Can anyone explain why there’s people after two twelve years old boys? It can’t be because of your face covered in pimples or because your chubby cheeks, right?”

 

“It’s baby fat, okay? Runs in the family…” Lennart pouts softly. “Just wait until I’m seventeen.”

 

“Don’t listen to her Lenny, she just doesn’t know how good is to hug you yet...” Before the boy can jump out of reach, his cousin already has the arms around him, clinging to Lennart’s body like he would never let him go, fingers pinching the not-that-big extra volume on his sides. “So fluffy!”

 

Maj is infected by the boys’ laughter and forgets about the subject until the next day while she’s copying his geography notes and sees _Joachim Götze-Reus_ on the top of the page.

 

Then it hits her.

 

“Holy cow Jogi!” she fixes the brim of the cap Lennart had forgotten with her the other week. “You’re those _guys_ son!”

 

“Well, that’s uhm, a way of saying I guess” he admits after realizing what she was talking about. “I’ve heard worse things.”

 

“Why you never told me?” she crooks her head, lowering her voice. “Does it… Bother you? Like… Do you feel ashamed of it?”

 

“Hell no! I wouldn’t change a thing about my family" he sighs and then smiles, putting the paper sheets away for a minute. "You know Maj, you don't need to ask around for long to notice that people think I'm nothing but a spoiled, arrogant kid, but honestly? I do not care because I just ... I _know_ I'm good and I'm not ashamed of being who I am, not for a second. However... I've been judged a lot for throwing all the You Know Who My Parents Are talk before; it's not the best method to make friends let me tell you that. I _wanted_ you to be my friend... Or I'd be stuck with just Lennart forever since we're related and he can't run away."

 

Maj feels like she understands more of the boy seated across from her, why he's different. She had heard talk in the hallways and around her classmates about Jogi being a crazy, impulsive kid who can’t see nothing past his own belly button, but she knows that's far from true - she knew since day one when he handed that beanie back to her. While some boys were making bets and being mean Jogi was sliding 10€ to a charity box, turning a bully’s money into something good that would help a stranger. He's not a brat, he's more mature than many out there, and she realizes that he would never deny being son of who he is, but not screaming it to the world is also a way of protecting them. Something tells her learning this wasn't easy for him.

 

The appreciation for him grows in her chest and when she chuckles, reaches out and ruffles Jogi's strawberry blond hair making it even messier than before, it grows on his chest too.

 

"You should cut your hair, you're starting to look like a girl"

 

"A pretty one?"

 

"A ravishing one which is quite annoying to be honest."

 

Despite his best efforts, Lennart doesn’t convince them to stop acting behind Arne’s back so the fake pranks continue for two more weeks before the boy finally get bored of having fun by using Maj as victim. She wants to make a grand finale (because for some reason that hair extensions idea can’t leave her head) but Jogi convinces her that showing up together to classes would be enough to make him mad.

 

“Doubts are crueler than the worst of truths,” he declares proudly. “It’s Molière, you know...”

 

“Shut up, nerd,” she slaps his head, making him groan.

 

Lennart asks if they don’t fear a retaliation after being updated about everything on a Friday at Kuhbar, dimples showing as his lips are pressed on a thin line in unnecessary apprehension.

 

“He won’t have time to mess with us,” Jogi says licking the ice cream that was dripping from the milkshake cup. “Arne got himself in trouble with the seniors.”

 

“Why?” Lennart tosses his cousin one of his napkins while scooping a bit of the banana ice cream on his bowl.

 

“Looks like he’s into some girl named Ann-Sofie but her older brother doesn’t quite approve and it’s making his life quite hard at the moment…”

 

“Wait until he send her a homemade gingerbread…” Maj reminds them, closing her scrapbook with the stickers the three had put on that day’s page as they laugh. “At least he won’t even think about messing up with her when she refuses.”

 

“If she refuses… C'mon, it’s gingerbread!”

 

“Oh God Lenny…” the girl facepalms herself after closing her school bag.

 

“What about the other two?”

 

Jogi drinks more of his huge cup and continues. “Otto and Finn wouldn’t get anything by taking part on this with him since Ann-Sofie doesn’t have any sisters so they’re gone.”

 

“So no more crazy pranks then?”

 

“You seem sad, I thought you hated our crazy ideas…” Maj pulls the sleeves up to free her hands and slide it inside the BVB jacket Jogi had lent to her.

 

“Well, the ice cream always makes up for it.”

 

“Don’t worry man, one way or another, we’ll always have Kuhbar on Fridays.” Jogi rests his head on his cousin’s shoulder before slowly getting ready to tickle his sides.

 

Maj shakes her head hearing Lennart squealing while she makes her way to the counter, picks up from her pocket the small roll of euros they got from Arne those last weeks. Sliding them one by one inside the charity box, she watches it be filled up with a smile on her lips, thinking how everything turned to be just fine at the end.

 

“Maj! Help!”

 

Turning on her heels, she hurries back to their table, takes advantage of their focus on the tickle fight to steal a bunch of Lennart’s toppings to drop in her mouth before sipping Jogi’s milkshake - after all, best friends can’t pick sides, right?

**Author's Note:**

> A special thank you to Khalehla for always being such a great beta, enabler and friend. ily <3


End file.
